COUNTY chief reveals he voted against reconstruction because he listened to fans throughout the country.

ROSS COUNTY chairman Roy MacGregor last night told how he had no option but to sink the SPL’s plans for reconstruction.

An emotional MacGregor opened his heart to Record Sport shortly after playing a key role in destroying proposals to force through a controversial new 12-12-18 structure.

In fact, MacGregor joked that he had to be driven out of Glasgow in the boot of a car, following his decision to team up with St Mirren and torpedo the blueprint.

But the energy business high flyer was deadly serious when laying out his reasons for voting “no” – and adamant that the other 10 clubs should have done exactly as he did, by listening to the wishes of fans up and down the country.

MacGregor said: “I don’t feel great about what happened today. I don’t feel great for my colleagues and for the First Division clubs who need more money now.

“So there are no winners out of this. For a day or two there will be some soul-searching and challenging decisions. But I can look myself in the mirror knowing I acted for all the right reasons. I couldn’t do that if I had voted the other way. That’s why I had no option.

“I just hope sense will prevail and somehow in the not too distant future we can try to resurrect this in a way that can get backing from everyone.

“Unfortunately, there were road blocks placed up against any other kind of league structure. That was the surprising thing for me as a businessman.

“In all walks of life, if you know you are going to lose something, you try to find a compromise. But in football circles that doesn’t seem to work for whatever reason. The situation we were in was all or nothing and I don’t know why.

“I can’t tell you whether there are agendas going on that I don’t understand. I certainly don’t see them. But maybe there are things going on that I don’t understand.

“Maybe the city clubs should have a look at this sort of God-given right to be in the top six or the top eight. I don’t know.”

MacGregor then added: “It’s not a good day. But it’s a day for reflection and hopefully, once the dust settles, we need to move forward again.

“In my time in the SPL there has been a real positive attempt to make changes. But maybe we all need to go back to our fans and start listening to them a bit more.

“I feel privileged and honoured to have been round the table. I’ve had a vote today when I’ve only been in that league for nine months.

“I’m only a beginner so I may have made the wrong decision, in the long term interests of the game. I feel humbled that I might have made the wrong decision for football but I can only make my judgement on what my shareholders and fans are telling me to do.

“If I didn’t do that there would be no point in me being chairman. I would be committing suicide.”

Rival chairmen were furious about yesterday’s collapse with Aberdeen’s Stewart Milne apparently close to tears.

And MacGregor believes much of that anger is down to the fact clubs experiencing financial hardship are now set to lose out on a share of almost £2million in sponsorship.

He said: “It’s going to be difficult to get a sponsor without having one league. As it stands they get around £2m from the Clydesdale Bank so, yes, there is a financial hit for the clubs. I understand that.

“But you have to make a judgment on where you see it. Do you see the benefit of all the good things against those things that are not so good?

“The split into an 8-8-8 was probably our only difficulty. It’s too complicated and difficult to understand and we believe it will have a detrimental impact on season-ticket sales. We cannot take the loyalty of fans for granted.

“These are deeply held views. If they weren’t so deeply held then you would go with the redistribution of wealth and the one league body.

“We listened to our supporters and came down on their side. A chairman doesn’t vote for himself, he votes for his club and his fans and has an eye on the greater good.”

County are one of the few rampant success stories in the crisis-hit SPL and are fighting it out for a European place in their first top-flight season.

But he believes some of Scotland’s traditionally biggest clubs are clinging to the past.

He said: “The other side, particularly the larger clubs, believe the eight at the top end will generate more revenue, provided they can get into it.

“If you think you are always going to be in the top eight then it makes sense. But this season shows that’s not necessarily going to be the case.

“Some of these big fish have been swimming up hill and they haven’t been watching what’s happening. There has been a major swing to the north and a major swing to different models.”